Robins eyes new players

He has to bring in a goalkeeper because reserve keeper Steve Cann is out for four months after dislocating a shoulder in training yesterday.

This has meant Robins deciding to move swiftly to bring in someone as back-up to Andy Warrington.

He is even hoping to get something sorted today ahead of the Pontins League reserve team game with Sheffield United at Millmoor tonight (7pm).

In addition, with striker Chris O'Grady having a slight back injury, Robins may well look for an emergency loan signing to add to his strikeforce which would be badly depleted if O'Grady had to be ruled out.

Cann - who joined the Millers after a successful trial spell following his release by Derby County - injured his shoulder when saving a fierce shot during training yesterday.

He is to have surgery and can expect to be missing until early next year.

"It's most unfortunate for the lad because he had been doing well," said Robins.

"He did it saving a shot, although we don't know if it happened then or when he landed."

Robins confirmed that he is aiming to add to his squad this week .

Although injuries are affecting all departments, he could be looking specifically at defender and a striker and it seems there will have been exploratory talks with clubs.

"Yes, I am looking to do something if I can," was all Robins would say.

Meanwhile, midfielder Peter Holmes has given the Millers a boost by declaring himself fit and he plays for the reserves against the Blades tonight.

Young goalkeeper Mark Oxley is pencilled in to replace Cann while Marc Newsham, who came on for O'Grady on Saturday, is left out as a precaution. Tom Cahill partners Ryan Taylor.

n Sheffield Wednesday will use part of the money received from the sales of Madjid Bougherra and Chris Brunt to partially offset the club's 20-million-plus debt.

The club is set to announce a net annual profit of 1.5m, their best results for a decade, while the intention is for some of the income from their recent multi-million-pound player sales to be utilised to help reduce the overall debt.

Meanwhile, a player they recently paid money for, 700,000 striker Francis Jeffers, looks set to make his Wednesday comeback tonight after injury.

The 1.5m net profit, revealed from unaudited preliminary indications, is for the last full financial year.

If confirmed once the official audit is complete, then it would represent Wednesday's best financial return since 1995.

The 2.5m sale of Madjid Bougherra to Charlton in January was a huge boost for Wednesday's finances.

The 3m move of Chris Brunt last month is not factored into the figures for the last financial year but some of that is set to contribute towards the overall debt reduction.

The preliminary report welcomes the fact that the profit marks a "forward movement" in the club's financial performance. As part of this process, the directors’ intentions are that 2m will specifically designated from “player trading” for debt reduction.

Jeffers looks set to play some part in the Owls’ reserves game at Grimsby tonight.

n Owls: P38